Max and the Millions

by Ross Montgomery

  The Red army bellowed. Ivy broke free and ran to the Red Queen.

  “Your Majesty, no! Luke has a plan to reunite the tribes and fix everything and—”

  “No,” said the Red Queen. “Nothing can ever fix what’s happened between us.”

  She raised one hand, and the Red archers pulled back their bows. The Green fly riders loaded their catapults and aimed them at the Red army. The guards surrounding the Blue prisoners stepped forward, the circle of spears growing tighter….

  And the valley filled with shadow.

  Screams went up on every side. Reds and Greens alike dropped their weapons and pointed at the sky. Something was blocking the light from the Bulb, filling the air like a thundercloud—something enormous. And it was getting closer.

  Luke looked up. It was Giant, but he had changed. He had no face.

  And he was flying.

  “Lower!” said Max.

  Sasha carefully loosened his grip on the rope.

  “Just a little bit more…,” said Max.

  Max was hanging from the ceiling fan by a skipping rope tied round his waist. Sasha stood on the bed, holding the other end so that Max—who was wearing a fencing mask—dangled above the floor like a pantomime angel.

  “Stop!” said Max. “That’s close enough. Don’t forget, I’m still wearing the microscope goggles under this mask!”

  Sasha gripped the rope. “Will you still be able to lip-read?”

  Max nodded. “It won’t be easy, though. So long as I can find Luke…”

  Max gazed at the pile of old clothes beneath him. It looked like he and Sasha had arrived just in time—hundreds of thousands of Reds, Greens and Blues stood on the sand, staring up in shock. He searched the crowds….

  “There!” said Max. “He’s with another king and queen—he did it! He brought everyone together!”

  “So what now?” Sasha asked.

  Max smiled. “It’s simple. Everything that’s happened so far has been because of a misunderstanding. It’s time to tell them the truth.”

  Sasha frowned. “You’re going to do all that with sign language?”

  “Of course not!” said Max.

  He reached for the whiteboard he’d stuffed into the back of his trousers and took a marker from one pocket.

  “I’m going to write to them. And you, Sasha, are going to help me work out what to say.”

  * * *

  The Bin King leapt to attention and bellowed to the crowds around him.

  “Behold, Prince Luke has summoned Demon! Warflies, attack!”

  Before Luke could stop them, the warflies had turned to face Giant and fired their catapults. For a moment the air was thick with flying metal, a death cloud soaring toward Giant’s face….

  Which bounced right off him. The metal guard covering his face was like a force field—nothing could get through it.

  The Bin King’s face fell. There was an awkward silence.

  “RUUUUUN!” screamed the Bin King.

  He charged to the nearest warfly, shoved off the fly rider and buzzed away as fast as he could. The rest of the warflies quickly followed, and the Green army began to flee the valley.

  “Quick!” Luke grabbed Ivy. “We have to get out of here!”

  A hand stopped him—the Red Queen.

  “So it’s true. You do control Demon!” she cried. “Why else would he have turned up now, if not to protect you? Well, if it’s a blood sacrifice he wants, then the Reds will give him one—a royal one! Guards, seize him!”

  A dozen Red soldiers grabbed Luke and started dragging him away. Ivy leapt at them with rage, swinging her club, but it was no use. Luke looked up to the sky desperately.

  “Giant, quick! Tell them you don’t want to hurt anyone!”

  But Giant wasn’t even looking at him. Instead, he was holding a huge white slab in his hands, and doing something very, very slowly to the back of it….

  “Execute him!” cried the Red Queen.

  The soldiers threw Luke to the ground and held him down. Luke struggled to escape.

  “For crying out loud, why aren’t you listening? Giant’s trying to help us! For Great One’s sake, let me go!”

  The soldiers let him go instantly.

  “Oh,” said Luke. “Thanks.”

  No one said anything. They were all staring up at the sky.

  “Er…Luke,” said Ivy, “you might want to see this.”

  Luke looked up, and his mouth fell open.

  Giant had turned round the slab. There were words on it.

  HI EVERYONE!

  SORRY ABOUT THIS

  BIG MISUNDERSTANDING

  I KILLED THE FLY, COMPLETE MISTAKE

  DIDN’T MEAN TO

  OOPS!!!

  The crowd was stunned.

  “Oops?” said the Red Queen.

  There was a moment’s pause, then Giant turned the board round and started writing again.

  ACTUALLY IT WAS SASHA

  BUT OUR FAULT ANYWAY

  NOT LUKE’S

  #SORRY

  The crowd was dumbstruck.

  “See?” said Luke smugly. “Told you I didn’t do it.”

  “Who’s Sasha?” said Ivy.

  Luke looked around. Everyone was staring at him.

  “What?”

  “Go on, ask,” said the Red Queen. “You’re the one who summoned him.”

  Luke glowered. “For the last time, I didn’t summon him—”

  “You might want to pretend you did so she doesn’t kill you,” whispered Ivy.

  Luke swallowed, and turned to the sky. He made sure to speak slowly and clearly.

  “Er…hi, Giant. Could you tell us who Sasha is, please?”

  Giant wrote another message.

  THE ONE ON THE BED

  The crowd turned to the vast mountain on the horizon. Standing on the Bed was the second Giant, looming over the Floor like a towering angel of death.

  He gave them a little wave.

  “See?” said Luke. “They’re not monsters!”

  The valley was filling up again. Everyone seemed to have forgotten about the battle: Reds and Greens and Blues stood side by side, their eyes fixed on what was happening above them.

  “But…why are they here?” said someone. “What do they want?”

  Hundreds of people were watching Luke now, waiting for him to speak. He cleared his throat.

  “Er…why are you helping us, Giant?” he asked.

  There was a long pause. Then…

  I’VE COME TO TAKE YOU ALL AWAY

  TO SOMEWHERE ELSE

  SOMEWHERE BETTER

  A gasp of disbelief went up from the crowd.

  “Take us away?”

  “No! It can’t be!”

  “It’s…”

  “The Great One!” Malcolm stumbled through the crowd, his hands held up to the heavens. “He has returned to take us all to paradise!”

  “Why is that man not wearing any clothes?” someone muttered.

  The effect of Malcolm’s words on the crowd was electric. More and more people were gathering round them, arguing and panicking, not able to believe it could be true. Luke turned back to the sky.

  “Giant, are you really the Great One?” he asked. “The one who created the Floor, and gave us life?”

  This time, the wait was much longer. The crowd stood for many seconds, their breath held in anticipation. Giant didn’t move—it was like he was trying to work something out in his head.

  And then, just when it looked like there was going to be no reply, he wrote on the slab and turned it around.

  YEAH THAT’S ME

  The crowd went wild.

  “It’s a miracle!”

  “He has returned!” />
  “Praise be to the Great One!”

  “How can we be sure it’s him?”

  Everyone stopped. Ivy was looking up at the sky, concerned.

  “I mean, he just says he’s the Great One, right?” she said. “He could be lying!”

  The crowd grumbled. There seemed to be no way of proving whether Giant was their divine creator or a great big fibber.

  “Ask if he knows where my keys are,” said a Green.

  Everyone turned to look at him. The Green shrugged.

  “The Great One knows everything, right? So he’ll know where my keys are.”

  Everyone agreed this made perfect sense.

  “Oh, come on,” said Luke. “You don’t actually think—”

  “Ask him or we’ll break your legs,” said the Red Queen, grabbing him by the scruff of the neck.

  Luke groaned. “Giant, do you know where…”

  “Keith,” said the Green.

  “Do you know where Keith’s keys are?”

  There was a long wait.

  ARE THEY IN YOUR POCKET?

  Keith reached into his pocket with a trembling hand…and pulled out the keys.

  “It…it is him!” he cried. “It’s the Great One!”

  The crowd went ecstatic, holding one other and crying with joy. The valley was filled with people of every color now—Red and Green and Blue, arm in arm. Luke lifted his head in amazement.

  “So, what do we do, Great One? Tell us!”

  The writing appeared quickly this time.

  GATHER THE WHOLE FLOOR TOGETHER

  I’LL COME BACK FOR YOU

  LEAVING LUKE IN CHARGE FOR NOW

  BYE!

  MA THE GREAT ONE

  The soldiers who had been trying to execute Luke only moments before fell to their knees.

  “Your Majesty!” they begged. “Forgive us!”

  “We didn’t know!”

  “Lead us, Prince Luke!”

  Luke looked up. The eyes of the entire valley were on him now, waiting for his next words. It felt strange—it felt good, actually.

  “Well…you heard what the Great One said!” he announced. “Spread the word to every corner of the Floor—we’re going to paradise!”

  The tribes cheered. The Red Queen grabbed Luke’s hand and held it high.

  “All hail King Luke, voice of the Great One!”

  “Luke! Luke!” the crowd chanted.

  Luke gazed across the crowd, lapping up the adoration. There was a strange feeling in his chest, like it was inflating so much it might suddenly explode.

  So this is what power feels like, thought Luke. No wonder the Bin King likes it so much.

  Ivy looked nervously at the crowd.

  “Luke, are you sure about this? I thought the whole point of being one tribe was to get rid of kings.”

  “What are you worrying about?” said Luke. “Look at them, Ivy!”

  The people ahead were dancing together, hand in hand—Reds with Greens, and Greens with Blues.

  “A moment ago, these people were all ready to kill each other. We didn’t need the Wise Man after all. The Floor is reunited, and it’s all thanks to me!”

  Ivy frowned. “You mean all thanks to the Great One.”

  “Yeah, sure,” said Luke, waving her away. “That’s what I meant.”

  Ivy looked at him. “Luke, I have a really bad feeling about this. Something doesn’t feel right…something’s weird….”

  But Luke wasn’t listening—all his attention was focused on the people chanting his name. Before Ivy had finished her sentence, he had left her and walked into the crowd with his arms outstretched. People started piling on top of each other to be the first to touch him.

  “Luke, stop….”

  He didn’t stop—he didn’t even hear her. Ivy watched as the crowd swallowed him up completely.

  Max swung down from the ceiling fan and landed on the bed, his heart pounding. He tore off the fencing mask and goggles.

  “How did you know the keys were in his pocket?” said Sasha.

  “Lucky guess,” said Max. “And it worked—look at them!”

  The people around the pile of clothes were celebrating—and that wasn’t all. You could see others from all over the room heading toward the clothes, drawn by Max’s message. The different colors were finally mixing—Red and Green and Blue, together as one.

  “The Greens tried to attack, but the mask protected me!” said Max. “Now they’ve all made peace—the war’s over!”

  Sasha was reading the words on Max’s whiteboard. “ ‘The Great One’? What does that mean?”

  Max shrugged. “Oh, that. Slight confusion—they think I’m their god or something.”

  Sasha’s eyes bugged out of his head. “Their god?!”

  “I know—it’s perfect!” said Max. “Now they’ll finally do whatever we tell them!”

  Sasha looked uncomfortable. “I thought you said we were going to be honest.”

  “I am being honest!” said Max. “We are going to take them away, aren’t we? I can tell them the whole truth once we get them to paradise!”

  “Paradise?”

  “Well, almost,” Max explained. “Come on, I’ll show you!”

  He leapt out the window and scrambled back down the gutter. It was all Sasha could do to keep up with Max as they ran through the bushes and into Mr. Darrow’s vegetable patch.

  “I can’t believe we didn’t think of it before—the potting shed!”

  Max threw open the door and ran inside.

  “It’s perfect! It’s big enough to fit all the people, it’s warm and dry, and best of all, no one ever comes here! All it needs is a little clean.”

  Max swept his arm across the tables, sending tools and pots clattering to the floor. Sasha watched with concern. Max was breaking things and hadn’t even noticed. Sasha tried waving his arms to get his attention, but Max didn’t notice that either. He grabbed Max’s arm.

  “Max, are you sure about this? You said we had to do everything perfectly or it could go wrong. Don’t you think lying to all those people—telling them you’re their god—might be a mistake?”

  Max shook his head. “We stopped them from fighting each other, and now we’re giving them a place they can live in safety for the rest of their lives! Surely one lie has got to be worth all that?”

  Sasha fumbled. “I…I suppose.”

  Max started collecting all the trays and lining them up on the tables.

  “This is our final chance to save them. All we have to do is scoop the people into a couple of trays, bring them here and we’re done! Mr. Darrow’s world is safe, King Luke can protect the people for us and, best of all, Mr. Pitt will never find out!”

  “You’re sure?”

  Max clapped a hand on Sasha’s back.

  “Sasha, I’ve never been more certain of anything in my life.”

  * * *

  Mr. Pitt stood at the entrance to the Pitt Building.

  “My—my school.”

  The freshly painted foyer walls were covered in crayon smears. The beautiful X-shaped walkway was strewn with lost-and-found items. Someone had set off all the fire extinguishers.

  The Pitt Building had been sabotaged.

  The foreman had called Mr. Pitt when he was halfway to town, garbling something about the school being under attack. Mr. Pitt had turned the car round and sped back as fast as he could, but he was already too late. The grounds were covered in library books, footballs and Hula-Hoops. It was like a bomb had gone off.

  Whoever had done it had worked fast, and in a group.

  “Uuuurrrrrugh.”

  Mr. Pitt shrieked and leapt backward, into an ornamental fern. The groan had come from a pile of rags on the reception des
k. Mr. Pitt prodded the pile. It groaned again.

  “Who’s in there?” he cried. “Show yourself!”

  The pile of rags was a five-year-old girl wearing every costume from the drama department. Her eyes were dazed and swollen and her mouth stained green. On her front was a badge that said 5 TODAY.

  “Candy,” Joy moaned. “So much candy…”

  “Mr. Pitt!”

  He spun round. The foreman was standing at the door, his eyes wide with panic. “Come quick!”

  Mr. Pitt wedged Joy under one arm like a rugby ball and followed the foreman outside. The grounds were in chaos. The school’s annual supply of toilet paper was wrapped round every tree in sight, and the builders were chasing the rest of the Sparkle Pony Summer Club across the playing fields. The girls were in a sugar-induced frenzy. They’d raided the power tools locker and were brandishing drills and sanders, gibbering in tongues.

  Mr. Pitt was speechless. The governors would be here in a matter of hours. He held Joy at arm’s length like a bad dog and shook her.

  “How—how did this happen? Where are Max and Sasha?!”

  Joy pointed with a shaking hand. “Boardinghouse…top floor…”

  Mr. Pitt looked up. There, clambering down the side of the boardinghouse and running into the bushes, were Max and Sasha. He looked at the window they’d just climbed out of. Mr. Darrow’s bedroom.

  The veins on his forehead pinged like buttons bursting on a shirt.

  “DARROOOOW!”

  Of course—it all made sense now. Pitt had foolishly thought he was rid of Mr. Darrow. The man had been a thorn in his side ever since he came to St. Goliath’s…and now Max and Sasha were trying to continue his legacy, right under his nose! That was why Max had returned to school so early—so he could humiliate Mr. Pitt in front of the governors! So he could destroy his plans for greatness at the last second!

  Mr. Pitt knew exactly what he had to do now. He should have done it when he first had the chance. Stamp out every scrap of Mr. Darrow’s memory, once and for all.

  Mr. Pitt turned to the boardinghouse, and ran.